On 12 August 2013 18:01, Peter Alefounder <p_alefounder@???> wrote:
>
> A few days ago, my monitor power supply failed (I got a new one from
> Maplin, so no problem with that, now). Electrolytic capacitors in
> the old one were bulging a bit on top. As my computer is the same
> age (I assembled it in 2002) I thought I had better examine that as
> well. One capacitor on the main board looks a bit dodgy to me.
>
> So, I am thinking of upgrading my system. I would certainly want a
> new main board, and I understand that means a new processor as well.
> The existing system is an MSI K7T266 with an AMD Athlon 1800+ CPU.
>
> I see no need to replace existing peripherals - monitor, mouse,
> keyboard, scanner.
>
> The question is, can I re-use other, internal, bits? I would
> certainly want to retain the existing zip drive, but the floppy
> drive (which I have not used in years) is not important. The
> graphics board is a nVidia MSI G4MV460 and I have two 500KB memory
> cards. Is it worthwhile retaining those?
>
> Should I instead be thinking of a completely new computer? If so, is
> buying one with Linux already installed a good option? I do not have
> my own internet connection, so would want the system on CD or DVD.
> Software might recognise older hardware, but I suspect old software
> might not be so good with new hardware (at the moment, I have Debian
> 4.01r). I presume I could install my existing hard drive alongside
> the new one, copy user files to the latter and remove the old system
> from the old drive, retaining that to use as a back-up.
>
> Any recommendations, opinions or warnings as to what to avoid are
> welcome.
>
I think if you specified what your budget was, it would be easier to
give advice.
Also, what do you need the PC for?
So we can judge if CPU speed, or GPU speed is most important and how
much RAM is needed.
In general, decide on how much you want to spend, and then get the
best PC for that money.
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